If you look up the word "multitasker" in the dictionary, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to find Patterson Hood's picture smiling back at you. The Drive-By Truckers' (DBT) founding member not only spent the past year with his crew on tour playing the band's 2001 double-CD concept album Southern Rock Opera in its entirety, but in February he released his fourth solo album, Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams, followed by a solo tour.

Now, Hood and the DBTs are getting ready to embark on The Charm & Decadence Tour (coming to Red Butte Garden on Tuesday, June 17) with good friends Deer Tick and Thelma And The Sleaze. With so much going on, the best place to start is to ask the gregarious, loquacious Hood about this slate of dates that will take the Georgia quintet through the fall.

"We've played shows with [Deer Tick] through the years," Hood said in an early May interview. "I've always loved the band and their records, which I think are super-cool. They kind of hit me in the same way Cheap Trick does, and I mean that as the absolute compliment that I hope it comes across as. John [J. McCauley] and I are friends, and I'm excited to spend time with that guy 'cause he's super-cool. He's hilarious, and we always have fun together. I'm hoping as it gets going, we can come up with something to do together as an encore-type thing. I'd also be making a mistake if I didn't talk about how much I [effing] love Thelma And The Sleaze."

To say music is as vital to Hood as breathing isn't an understatement. When talk turns to the experience he had recording Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams last year, he's quick to say it was an excuse for him to do a project with good friend (and Portland, Ore. neighbor) Chris Funk of The Decemberists. It also allowed Hood to work with an array of special guests including Lydia Loveless, Steve Berlin of Los Lobos, Katie Crutchfield of Waxahatchee and the shoegaze/country-rockers Wednesday.

"I hadn't made a solo record in a long time," Hood explained. "The band is in a great place, so it's not like I'm necessarily looking for an outlet outside of the band. Unlike when I did the one before, when it was good to have a break from the band, that's not really the case these days. The band has never been in a better place as far as personally, musically and pretty much across the board. I wanted to do a project with Funk and we've played together enough to know that we had this crazy-cool chemistry, so it started with that. I started keeping a folder of songs that I thought would be fun to do with him and approach in a different way than how I would approach doing them with my band."

He added, "It gave me a chance to collaborate with people I love and admire that I normally don't get to because I play in a band. A band is a pretty tight family, so there's not a lot of outward collaboration necessarily. I got to hear my voice harmonizing with Katie from Waxahatchee, for Christ's sake. I also got to do that with Lydia Loveless, who I'm old friends with and who I adore. And she ended up becoming part of my band that I put together to tour the record last month. That was just a joy. And I got to have Steve Berlin play on that record, as well as Kevin Morby, who I'm a huge fan of. It goes on and on."

With Drive-By Truckers' 30th anniversary coming up in 2026, Hood said there's plenty to look forward to in the new year even as his outfit rushes to "pack a year's worth of touring into six weeks of touring (with Deer Tick)," after which, the DBTs plan to go on a brief, unprecedented hiatus.

The other anniversary looming is that of Hood and guitarist Mike Cooley, who first met while both were attending University of North Alabama where they formed the band Adam's House Cat a decade before forming the DBTs. Hood is also looking to get some more mileage out of Exploding Trees & Airplane Screams.

"I've got a handful of songs left over from when I recorded the solo record and plan on doing something with those next year," Hood said. "I'm not quite exactly sure what and if I'm going to record more stuff in the studio or combine them with some live stuff from the tour we did. But I'm definitely going to put out a companion piece to tie it all in with [Exploding Trees] next year. Beyond that, I'm in the early stages of trying to start writing for the next Truckers record. It's just a matter of how long it takes to come up with enough songs that we feel like are worthy, and to do it. We're all talking about it, but not actively doing it yet. Plus, this year in August is Cooley and mine's 40th anniversary that we've been playing together. We'll find some way to celebrate that milestone, too."

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